It is doubtful the Riverside will see a more spectacular winning goal all season, as Middlesbrough claimed their first ever victory over Leicester at their new stadium.

It is doubtful the Riverside will see a more spectacular winning goal all season, as Middlesbrough claimed their first ever victory over Leicester at their new stadium.

Three minutes on the clock, 40 yards out with your back to goal. The crowd expect you take the easy option and lay the ball off to a team-mate, but instead you swivel sharply and blast the ball past the unexpecting goalkeeper.

The only problem was this was not a wonder strike from a Boro forward, but the attempted backpass of Leicester City centre-back Frank Sinclair.

Poor old Sinclair, the former Chelsea man, has an unenviable reputation for putting the ball in his own net, but none will have been as farcical as this one.

Having put his side, already adrift at the bottom of the table prior to kick-off, a goal down before they had even really got the ball out of their own half, Sinclair turned to berate a team-mate for a sloppy pass.

Unfortunately, all this succeeded in doing was increasing the sound of laughter which had replaced the surprised and slightly embarrassed cheers of the Boro fans. Sinclair looked a lonely figure as the game re-started.

To be fair to him, he was actually the pick of Leicester defenders for the rest of the match, but the damage had already been done and, as is so often the case, Leicester were facing up to the realisation that when you are Nationwide league-bound, lady luck has a nasty habit of packing her bags and leaving you on the way.

That it ended up being the only goal of the game simply accentuated the frustration of Foxes boss Dave Bassett who claimed there was nothing else to choose between the two sides.

But for Boro it was the perfect antidote to the pain of last weekend's defeat at West Ham when a far less calamitous blunder from goalie Mark Schwarzer had cost them a point.

Ironically, the three points garnished on Saturday took Boro above the Hammers on goal difference and into twelfth place in the table. Mid-table respectability beckons for Steve McClaren's men and you cannot begrudge them such a luxury when they have such a commendable work ethic.

Boro never looked like a well-oiled attacking machine, but once the players have spent more time with new signing Benito Carbone there will hopefully be a clinical finish to his clever flicks and passes.

Carbone was the entertainer of an otherwise workman-like display, although the game threw up a couple of intriguing battles, such as Ugo Ehiogu against former Boro star Brian Deane and Paul Ince verses McClaren's transfer target Muzzy Izzet. The Leicester man would certainly be a quality addition to the Boro squad, but Ince and central midfield colleague Robbie Mustone deserve praise for their handling of the Turkish international and his troublesome team-mate Robbie Savage.

And although the home side continue to find scoring goals a problem they did create chances. The closest they came to giving the result a nicer gloss coming in the 64 minute when Jonathan Greening's rasping drive came back off the post.

In the end it was another narrow, hard-fought victory for Boro, but the bare facts remain. With just one defeat in ten outings Boro have become an extremely difficult side to beat and although the relegation battle is far from over, they look odds on to preserve their status.